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Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State on Friday warned the members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state to eschew any form of violence and crisis in their effort at changing power.

The advice is coming following feelers from some quarters that a faction in the body is threatening to take over power from the incumbent, immediately a change of guard occurs at the state governorship level.

Ajimobi gave the advice while playing host to the National President of the Union, Mr Najeem Yasin who led other national officers of the union to his (Ajimobi’s) office on a courtesy call.

Giving a remark, the governor noted that the union must stick to the provisions of its constitutions in terms of change of power and ensure that the era of using cutlasses and guns to take over motor parks and garages in the state should be gone forever.

While thanking the NURTW boss for his support to achieving peace in the state chapter of the union, Governor Ajimobi enjoined a strict adherence to the Union’s constitution in the selection of its leaders.

Ajimobi said, “Our administration came on board when the state was a garrison command. There was brigandage everywhere caused mainly by the activities of NURTW members. There were so many no-go-areas across the state, especially in Ibadan.

“We promised not to interfere in the activities of the union and restore peace to the state which we achieved tremendously.

Our administration did very well by whatever yardstick anyone might intend to use and we are the most peaceful, successful and security-conscious administration in the history of the state.

“I am proud to say that whatever we have achieved today in Oyo state, especially in terms of peace and security, Alhaji Yasin and his executives contributed to it.

“On your election, just follow the law and do whatever the law says. Don’t bend it. And leaders must know that anywhere you are, don’t want to be there forever because you cannot be there forever.”

Speaking earlier, the NURTW boss assures that nobody or group can take over leadership of the union unconstitutionally noting that the era of taking over motor parks with guns, cutlasses and violence is long gone in the history of the union in the state.

He added that all transitions at any level of the union would be in compliance with its constitution, calling on members to sustain the peace established under the Ajimobi-led administration.

“Your Excellency, we are here in Oyo State to meet our members and after the meeting, I felt it is important to visit you. We want to appreciate you for the peace that reigned in our union in the state.

“Since the inception of our union in Oyo State, we have never enjoyed relative peace like the one witnessed under your administration. Today, we have forgotten the era of using cutlass and other dangerous weapons to take over the leadership of the union in the state.

“Anyone who tries to take over unconstitutionally or violently should be ready to face the full wrath of the law. We are now affiliated to the International Transport Federation, and so we have gone beyond brigandage and violence.

“Some people have been going around that by May 29, another leadership is taking over but I have told them that it cannot be because it is against our Unions constitution.

“By August, we would have our delegate conference where I will step down for another leadership to come in. In October, we will have state delegate conferences across the 36 states.

“We know the sacrifices you have made in our union to enjoy the current level of peace and stability and we will never allow anyone takes us back. And that is why we have come to thank you.”

Indications are rife that the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is set to wield the big stick against Senators Ali Ndume and Danjuma Goje as well as other erring members, who flout it’s directives on the election of the National Assembly leadership. This is coming as a result of intrigues and horse-trading that have recently characterised the position of the Senate President, in which some members had publicly spoken against the decision of the party.

The party had earlier taken a position on the matter, zoning the Senate Presidency to the North East and endorsing Senator Ahmed Lawan as its preferred choice. But some senators are said to be against the choice of the party, leading to dissenting tunes among the federal lawmakers. While Ndume has consistently insisted on running for the senate presidency, Goje has yet to make his position public but being thronged on by his supporters, who want him to run for the exalted office. Saturday Telegraph investigations however revealed that the leadership of the party, headed by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, is not ready to go into any form of negotiation, with a view to pacifying those rebelling against the party’s decision. Sources close to the APC leadership informed our correspondent that the “anti-party activities” currently being displayed by some key members of the party, will result in suspension or outright expulsion of some chieftains of the APC within and outside the National Assembly.

This, one of the sources said, is because of the recalcitrant attitude of some members of the party bigwigs, who are said to be supporting the rebellious cause of some of the lawmakers. A source that is close to the top echelon of the party told Saturday Telegraph that “any matter concerning the emergence of the leadership of the ninth assembly is strictly a decision to be made by the party’s leadership”. When probed further on the stance of the party and the purported disagreement within the ranks, the new House of Representatives member-elect, said; “Anybody, who defiantly violates the party’s zoning arrangement for the emergence of the leadership of the ninth assembly in June this year, would be made to face the penalty”.

He noted that Oshiomhole and the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, had warned the newly elected members not to toe the line of some ranking members, who are set to disobey the party. “Some key people including the national leader and the chairman had warned us not to go contrary to the publicly announced party’s zoning arrangement.

Those going against them are likely going to be indefinitely suspended, if not expelled. “If you will recall, the leader had last week said that anyone that is not in agreement with the party’s decision should quietly leave our fold. They have been advised to go to another party, but since they have refused to go on their own, the party will have to wield the big stick”, he said. Another source, who is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defector noted that the APC leaders were particularly angered by the steps being taken by some members of the opposition, who are positioning themselves to take advantage of the division within the APC lawmakers.

“Just like what happened earlier, members of the opposition PDP in the Senate are planning to take advantage of the cracks in the ruling party to field a candidate to produce the next President of the ninth Senate”, he said, adding that Ndume is risking expulsion from the party if he fails to drop his ambition to contest for the senate presidency.

The PDP interest

Checks by Saturday Telegraph further revealed that there are three possible candidates from the PDP jostling for the position of the Senate President. They are Senators Ike Ekweremadu, who is the current Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia South) and James Manager (PDP, Delta South).

The PDP trio, sources said, would have a fierce contest among themselves, noting however that Abaribe is the preferred choice of the PDP among these three. Analysing the chances of the PDP candidates, a member of the opposition within the Senate said those against Ekweremadu are those that feel he had been too long in the saddle and there is need to have a fresh blood in the leadership. “The number one reason which favours Abaribe over the other two, is that other senators who have been in the Assembly since 2007 will be having a sense of monotony to continue to have Ekweremadu presiding over them.

“But others are of the opinion that, though Manager is well experienced and also qualifies to hold the office, Abaribe is perceived to have more public acceptance among his colleagues, especially with the high level of carriage and articulation with which he has operated in the Red Chamber in the last 12 years”. He however argued that, with 41 members, it would be difficult for his party to win the race, except the PDP could get the support of about 14 members from the ruling APC. “It will be difficult for us in the opposition to produce the President of the Senate. Unless we are able to woo not less 14 APC senators, we can’t pull any magic. We need simple majority of 55 out of 109 senators to give us victory” he said.

Shekarau, Kano senators-elect endorse Lawan

As the battle rages, a former Kano State Governor Ibrahim Shekarau and some newly-elected senators from the state have endorsed the ambition of Lawan. Throwing their weight behind Lawan, the trio of Shekarau, senators Barau Jubrin and Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, described their candidate as eminently qualified to occupy the exalted seat going by international parliamentary best practices.

Jubrin, who is the secretary of Ahmed Lawan Campaign Organisation, led other members of the campaign train to the residence of Shekarau, where Lawan was endorsed. Among those who visited Kano with the Senate Leader include Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North), chairman, Ahmed Lawan Campaign Organisation; Senator Danladi Sankara, who is the new Senator-elect for Jigawa North-West Senatorial District; Senator Bello Maudiya (Katsina South); Senator Solomon Adeola Olamilekan (Lagos West); Senator Degi-Eremienyo (Bayelsa East); and Senator Lekan Mustapha (Ogun East).

Speaking after the endorsement, Jubrin said: “The National Assembly leadership is elected based on international parliamentary best practices. In every parliament, leaders are elected based on ranking, experience and once a parliament goes by election, the party that gets the majority in that election produces the leader, and in this case, the Majority Leader in such a parliament automatically becomes the Senate President or Speaker as the case may be.

“Now, Ahmed Lawan is the current leader and he will be the oldest Senator, the most ranked Senator. He was a two-time members of House of Representatives and four-time member of the Senate. So, he is the most experienced and most ripe for the job going by intentional parliamentary best practices.” On his part, Shekarau said: “I am so highly honoured to be visited by this high-powered delegation led by the leader of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan. I am now a Senator-elect and I pray the ninth National Assembly will be a very peaceful and smooth one, where we will all join hands together to move Nigeria forward. “I also congratulate you for aspiring to lead the National Assembly.

It is one thing to be there, it is another thing to be identified as a leader. It is a challenge and we are all proud of the fact the it is one of those that we have known before that is aspiring to lead the National Assembly.” However, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Lanre Issa- Onilu, could not be reached for comments on what his party would do to its members who may stage a rebellion by supporting any candidate other than Sen. Ahmad Lawan for the leadership struggle of the Red Chamber of the National Assembly.

The spokesman of the ruling party neither picked his calls not respond to a text message sent to his mobile phone. Similarly attempt to reach Ndume, one of the major challengers of Lawan for the Senate Presidency was unsuccessful. Several calls made to his mobile phone did not go through as the network provider said he was unavailable.

Ndume had last week publicly declared his ambition,stressing that he would contest the position. The declaration came after the APC had announced Lawan as the choice of the party.

The computation of presidential election results filed before the elections petition tribunal by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, shows that all accredited votes cast in 33 states of the federation were shared between him and President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Buhari was declared the winner for a second term of four years with 15,191,847 votes to defeat Mr Abubakar who polled 11,262,978 votes. The two got lion share of the 27,324,583 valid votes recorded in the election. Over 1.2 million votes were also voided in the course of the election.

However, excerpts of court filings published by PREMIUM TIMES give Mr Abubakar’s state by state breakdown of votes which, he claims, placed him ahead of Mr Buhari with 18,356,732 against the incumbent’s 16,741,430 votes. The result is exclusive of figures from Rivers State.

The Flaws

Mr Abubakar’s purported result implies that no invalid votes were recorded in the 33 states, and none of the 71 other presidential candidates obtained any score.

In three states; Abia, Bauchi and Cross River, the documents show that the two candidates collectively got votes higher than the number of accredited voters.

Mr Abubakar claims that he obtained the results from the server of the electoral commission, INEC.

The document is included in the petition filed by Mr Abubakar in a suit seeking his declaration as the validly elected president.

The purported result shows that Mr Abubakar defeated the incumbent president by a margin of 1.6 million votes.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed the alleged figures as a product of the opposition’s “hallucination.”

Different result:

Contrary to Mr Abubakar’s computation, INEC’s official result obtained from the electoral commission’s website show that all the 73 candidates who participated in the election scored some votes.

The result showed that 71 other candidates in the election shared the remnants of 869,758 valid votes collated.

The person who came a distant third in the election, Felix Nicholas, of the Peoples Coalition Party (PCP) scored a total of 110,196 votes.

He was followed by Obadiah Mailafia of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) who polled 97.874.

Gbor Terwase of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) clinched the fifth position with 66,851 votes.

Candidates with least scores are Angela Johnson of Alliance for a United Nigeria (AUN) with 1,092, Abah Elaigwu of Change Advocacy Party (CAP) with 1,111 and Edosomwon Johnson of the Nigeria Democratic Congress Party (NDCP) with 1,192 votes.

The Atiku result

In Mr Abubakar’s home state of Adamawa, where INEC officially declared Mr Abubakar winner with 412,266 against Mr Buhari’s 377,488, Mr Abubakar claims that he got 646,080 out of the total 815,680 accredited voters with Mr Buhari scoring 161,600. The result show only the two got all the possible votes.

In Akwa Ibom, Mr Abubakar and Buhari, according to the computation, received all the votes by the 925,370 accredited voters with Mr Abubakar polling 587,431 votes ahead of Mr Buhari’s 337,939.

It is another clean sweep in Enugu as Mr Abubakar claimed that the state’s 965,940 accredited voters gave him 698,119 as against 267,821 for Mr Buhari.

The 1,169,303 voters accredited in Sokoto State, according to the purported result, all shared their votes between Mr Abubakar (552,172) and Mr Buhari (617,131).

It is more trouble for President Muhammadu Buhari, as three more presidential candidates have separately approached the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, asking it to void the outcome of the February 23 presidential election.

Aisha Buhari voting at the Governorship and State Assembly Elections at Kofar Baru Polling Unit 003 in Daura Katsina State on 9th Mar 2019 In their various petitions, the three presidential candidates, urged the tribunal to invoke its powers and quash the declaration of President Buhari as the bonafide winner of the 2019 presidential election.

The petitioners separately alleged that the election was characterized by manifest irregularities, adding that the Electoral Act was not substantially complied with by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Those asking the tribunal to sack President Buhari and order a fresh election, are the Presidential candidate of the Hope Democratic Party, HDP, Chief Ambrose Owuru, whose petition marked as CA/ PEPC/001/2019, also cited the All Progressives Congress, APC and the INEC as Respondents. Owuru secured a total of 1,663 in the presidential election.

In another petition that was registered as CA/PEPC/004/2019, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, Pastor Aminchi Habu, equally challenged the outcome of the presidential poll.

Similarly, in its own petition marked CA/PEPC/003/2019, the Coalition For Change, C4C and its presidential candidate, Geff Chizee Ojinka, also urged the tribunal to nullify President Buhari’s election. Remarkably, unlike in all the other petitions, the C4C, which garnered a total of 2,391 votes at the presidential poll, cited the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, as the 2nd Respondent in its case.

It told the tribunal that its candidate, Ojinka, was validly nominated to participate in the February 23 election in order to secure votes to occupy the presidential seat. “Petitioners contend that the above election was vitiated by substantial non compliance with mandatory statutory provisions, which irregularity substantially affected the election such that the 1st Respondent was not entitled to be returned as the Winner of the Presidential election”, the party added. The Justice Abdul Aboki led tribunal had on Wednesday, ordered that President Buhari should be served with a copy of the the petition marked as CA/ PEPC/002/2019, which was filed by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar.

The tribunal directed that Buhari should be served with all the legal processes, through any senior officer at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja. Atiku and the PDP had applied to be allowed to serve the petition on Buhari via substituted means, decrying that retinue of security operatives at the Presidential Villa, made it impossible for them to effect personal service of the processes on him.

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has lifted its temporary ban on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to continue with the collation of governorship election results in Bauchi State.

This decision was taken in response to a suit filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Governor Mohammed Abubakar, asking the court to determine whether INEC has the powers to decide collation of results after the announcement of a suspension, Premium Times reports.

Lawyer to Mr Abubakar, Ahmed Raji, had approached the court seeking, an ex-parte application stoping INEC from proceeding with its decision to collate results in the state.

Clarifying an earlier decision made, following that ex-parte application, the judge, Inyang Ekwo, said there was never a time that his court granted the ex-parte application made by Mr Raji, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

According to the judge, what the court ordered following the earlier application is an order for parties to maintain status quo pending the determination of the suit before him.

The court also added that the submissions by Mr Raji that the tribunal could entertain an application coming from an election matter, “only after a return has been made: is a temporary situation that does not have the capacity to stand for long.”

According to the judge: “the issue at hand happened during an election. And the complaint was also made as a result of an election, subsequently,” said Mr Ekwo.

Subsequently the Mr Ekwo declined to give a pronouncement on the substantive matter and deferred his decision to allow the election tribunal make a pronouncement on the substantive matter.

The court also ruled that the order to maintain statusquo earlier granted on the matter had been lifted. Thus allowing the INEC the freedom to proceed with its decision made public in March 15.

INEC had on that date announced its resolve to proceed with the collation of results after previously declaring the Bauchi election inconclusive.

The Peoples Democratic Party won the previous election, as well as the supplementary election conducted on March 23.

INEC could however not formally declare the PDP winner because of the court action.